The iceberg was just part of it

First Name: Derek
Current Event Posting Number: 3
Topic: Science
Title of article: The Iceberg Was Only Part of It
Author: William J. Broad
Publication Name: The New York Times
Date of Publication: April 9, 2012
Length of article: 1476/ 2 pages


A century ago on a moonless night in North Atlantic, the Titanic hit an iceberg and catastrophe ensued. Despite this well known cause that doomed the liner, scholars, books and official inquiries contiue to address a deeper question of how a costly and well built ship — a ship declared to be unsinkable — could have ended so terribly. The theories placed the blame on everything from inept sailors to flawed rivets. Two new studies argue that rare states of nature played major roles in the disaster. Recently, a team of researchers from Texas State University-San Marcos and Sky & Telescope magazine discover an apparent explanation that Earth had come unusually close to the Sun and Moon that winter between December 1911 and February 1912 , enhancing their gravitational pulls on the ocean and producing record tides. The high tides refloated masses of icebergs traditionally stuck along the coastlines of Labrador and Newfoundland and sent them adrift into the North Atlantic shipping lanes. Mr. Maltin, who has written three books on Titanic and with the aid of astronomer Andrew T. Young and mirage specialist at San Diego State University, theorizes that the icy waters that night created ideal conditions for an unusual kind of mirage. He thinks the cold air bends light rays downward and creates warped images that confused the Californian, a ship nearby that could have rushed to the Titanic’s aid but instead did nothing. James Gibson of the Californian tstified 10 miles apart in the Labrador Current, there was nothing at all about it to resemble a passenger boat.


The scientists don't claim that these fresh perspectives or their idea is conclusive. Whether the natural factors outweighs the significance of ineptitude or not, here were no heroes or villains. Instead, there were a lot of human beings trying to do their best in the situation as they saw it. It was a very deceiving night.